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Tuesday, May 7, 2013

I can't believe the Lenovo Yoga is still the best machine! How to fix the intermittent keyboard and mouse randomly stopping working bug

(for why the Yoga is the best, see my original post, here). Also be sure to pick up a stand dock to use/dock the yoga in portrait orientation!

The keyboard and mouse sometimes stop working on my Lenovo Yoga due to a bug with the ymc service + related device orientation sensor. The purpose of the service is to automatically disable the keyboard + mouse while the device is being used as a tablet so pressing keys/touchpad doesn't interfere with whatever you're doing.

However, for some reason these relatively important input devices seem to enjoy disabling themselves randomly during normal use.

Here's a 'hotfix':

1. create 2 files, ymcstop.bat & ymcstart.bat

2. open with text editor and type 'net stop ymc' and 'net start ymc', respectively (without quotes), then save
3. place a shortcut in C:\Users\Will\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs to each file (replace Will with your username)
4. right click and change the icon to something you like
5. press start and type 'ymc' - now right click on each (start and stop) and 'Pin to Start'

If the keyboard/mouse ever stop working, simply press the windows icon (or slide from the right) to get to the start screen and press the ymcstop you created. If you want to re-enable the service (which disables the keyboard for tablet use), simply do the same but click the ymcstart you created.

Am a little perplexed about the issue of 'ymc.com', to my knowledge the service only deals with motion control (flapping fingers on cam) and some other future built in control for Win8..am quoting from Gizmodo:Though Lenovo is guilty of including some bloatware on the Yoga 13, it's not nearly as heavy a load as you'll find on other Windows 8 machines, like the Toshiba U925t. One app, Lenovo Transition, is actually quite useful: it lets you decide which apps will automatically run at full-screen when you enter tablet-mode. There's a bunch of pre-sets and, as you'd expect, they're all programs you can use without a keyboard. These include Windows Media Center, PowerPoint and MS Paint, among others. To be clear, too, you can set different actions for different programs, meaning you could choose to just have Windows Media Player run at full-screen if that's what you wanted.'

Anyway..The ymc.com driver has been deactivated from day 3 on my Yoga.

AND I STILL ENJOY AUTOMATIC CANCELLING OF KEYBOARD AND PAD WHEN FOLDING AND THE SCREEN WORKS PERFECTLY FOR ANY POSITIONS.

Well considering you refer to it as a driver (which it is not) perhaps you did not actually disable/deactivate it on day 3. If you press CTRL-SHIFT-ESCAPE (open task manager) can you find ymc.exe in the list?

My bad, it doesn't actually show ymc.exe as it is a service it is in the 'services tab' - it will say enabled or disabled // stopped or running - if it says stopped your keyboard should definitely still work even in stand mode

I find the same thing- On both our Yoga 2 11 and Yoga 2 13 (11-inch and 13-inch models) we ran into this same problem, disabled the ymc system service, rebooted. So far after several reboots, the bug seems to be gone AND the keyboard and trackpad auto-disable in tablet mode. And they re-activate in laptop mode. There must be some other service that auto-disables the keyboard and trackpad besides ymc, I guess.

Lenovo Yoga 11s keyboard is disabled after signing-in to the Microsoft account (the onscreen keyboard functions normally but the attached hardware keyboard doesn't). It works perfectly until you sign-in. It's not the Windows Updates, it's not the drivers or chipset. IT'S DEFINATELY WHEN I SIGN IN TO MICROSOFT. The only reason I need the Microsoft sign-in on this computer is for the SkyDrive or OneDrive sync. Also, I know how to disable the syncing within Windows 8.1 but the problem occurs just AT the sign-in so disabling all the syncing afterwards is completely useless as the keyboard is completely disabled AT sign-in (even after disabling sync settings). Anyone know how to correct this???

Jeff x - Same issue here. Keyboard works fine until sign into windows account, then becomes disabled. I've found that if I put the computer to sleep, then come back out of sleep, the mouse and or keyboard (whichever had been lost) will usually come back. This is VERY frustrating and I wish Lenovo or MS would come up with a fix, but we all know how that goes. I'm looking for a fix and if I find one I will come back to this blog and post.

Will you be more specific in steps one and two. What kind of file? What specific text editor? I don't know much about computers but my keyboard and touchpad stopped working after 6 days and even restarting doesn't fix them

any text editor will do - and you can create any file (.txt is easiest) - you'll want to manually change the extension (the 3 characters after the period, txt in the previous parenthetical) to bat - and if you don't see the extension (e.g. .doc or .txt or .mp3) of your files you may need to change windows folder options & click the checkbox for 'view file extensions'

go to task manager (ctrl shift escape) and check to see if the ymc service is running and/or the ymc.exe process is running. if it isn't, you have a hardware problem (likely the cable for the mouse/keyboard came unplugged)

How are my supposed to hit the windows plus X key or the ctrl + shift + esc keys when my keyboard is not working?!? I try to increase the memory on OneDrive, and since then my keyboard has stopped working. Ci've rebooted it, shut it down, put it into sleep mode, and all the yoga positions. So far, it is not reactivating my keyboard. help!!!!